How Crowded Is “The Cloud”?

A few months ago I asked you to help us (Famous Analyst to the Stars and partner Denis Pombriant and I) with research we were conducting around cloud adoption.

I told you our initial thesis was that cloud adoption was – er, well.. complicated. We are not even talking about cloud architecture (public versus private versus hybrid – pardon my french) but rather the applications and the databases that are attached to those applications.

Would it surprise you to learn that just 15% of companies use only one provider for their cloud applications? or that 46% use four or more applications?

The study yielded a very interesting perspective on how companies both use cloud applications and how IT departments and business units interface.

Our friends at FinancialForce (who sponsored the study, thank you!) made it available for download at this link.

We are also getting some great coverage in the press for the study (see some of the links below, will continue to update as we get more) if you are not into reading pages and pages of data and analysis.

But more important, what do you think? Is this in line with your experience? Would love to see your thoughts below…

disclaimer: aren’t you getting tired of reading this? my disclaimers don’t change, just the bad dad jokes in them… yes – FinancialForce sponsored the report, yes – both Denis and I have families to feed and vices to rule our lives (mine is research, Denis is more balanced… he likely has a real hobby), and yes – they get to contribute to the thesis via discussions… but man, let me tell you – those are not easy and nice discussions where we roll over and do what they say. we own the thesis, the questions, the data, the interviews and everything else — including the final content and total veto on how to use it. they get to sponsor us so we can take care of our families and vices (we forever thank them), but they don’t get to say much on what we say or how we come to those conclusions. basically – this report is independently thought-of, authored, and approved by two analysts for the benefit of our friends at FinancialForce distributing it and enhancing the conversations… and they sure do enhance them. thanks for reading.